BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - There are so many things wrong with Auburn's decision to put up statues of its three Heisman winners.

Where to begin?

How about the timing?

Three days before Alabama, in keeping with its tradition of honoring its national championship coaches, unveils its statue of Nick Saban, Auburn AD Jay Jacobs announced that statues of Pat Sullivan, Bo Jackson and Cam Newton are in production.

"The iconic statues will be placed on the east side of Jordan-Hare Stadium during the 2011-2012 academic year," Jacobs wrote Wednesday in his latest letter to Auburn supporters.

This is the same AD who dismissed the notion that Auburn would copy-cat Alabama by expanding Jordan-Hare Stadium.

"We're not going to increase our capacity just because someone else is increasing their capacity," Jacobs told me last August. "We're going to do what's best for us."

No doubt Auburn would say it's not building statues of its legendary players - and adding a bust of former coach John Heisman - because Alabama has built statues of its legendary coaches. But consider the coincidence.

Kevin Scarbinsky is a columnist for The Birmingham News. His column is published on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

Alabama won the BCS Championship in January 2010, and afterward AD Mal Moore confirmed that the school would add a Saban statue to the Walk of Champions to join those of Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Paul Bryant and Gene Stallings.

According to Jacobs' letter Wednesday, planning and production of Auburn's Heisman statues of Sullivan and Jackson began that spring, and "little did we know that we would need to add a third statue so soon."

About that third statue.

Building a statue of any living human being, even one who has never been accused of anything more serious than jaywalking, is a risky endeavor. Building a statue of a Heisman winner who's barely left campus is even riskier. See disgraced and dethroned 2005 Heisman winner Reggie Bush. He never got a statue. Lucky for the statue.

Building a statue of Newton at this point borders on reckless. Isn't it wildly premature to start work on that tribute before the NCAA investigation into his recruitment is closed?

Auburn coaches and officials can feel as confident as they like that no one employed by the school broke any rules in signing him. They can offer as evidence, as one did to me, that Gene Chizik had to be persuaded to offer Newton a scholarship. But can those same coaches and officials be just as confident that no supporter or booster broke any rules to help get Newton to Auburn?

This is a school that just watched four of its former players go on national television on HBO and tell the world that they received cash from supporters or boosters to sign with Auburn, while they were at Auburn or both.

At least one of those former players, Stanley McClover, has said that he's talked to the NCAA. Another one, Chaz Ramsey, told my colleague Jon Solomon that he plans to talk to the NCAA next week.

McClover last played at Auburn during the 2005 season. When he left, he was an "iconic" figure of a sort for his sacks against Brodie Croyle in the 2005 Iron Bowl. There's a famous painting of McClover standing over a fallen Croyle that no doubt graced the walls of some Auburn fans in the past six years.

How many of those paintings have come down since McClover spoke to HBO? There's a moral there.

Newton may have done nothing wrong to sign with Auburn or during his one year there. Or the NCAA may never prove it if he or his family did cross the line. He may have put together the single greatest individual season in college football history, winning the Heisman and leading the Tigers to the national title.

But does he deserve a statue? Does any living person deserve a statue for being a great football player or a great football coach? I would argue no, as I did when Alabama announced its Saban statue.

"Honoring our former greats is an important part of our tradition at Auburn," Jacobs wrote in Wednesday's letter.

In a state that comes up short in education, child care and so many other areas that really matter, don't we honor football players and coaches enough? How much is too much?

Thanks to details Jacobs provided, we now have a measure. It's a bronze likeness 1 ½ times life-size that weighs about 1,900 pounds.